10 Experimental PHP Projects Pushing the Envelope

6. Php.js

Ajax-enhanced websites have become the norm these days thanks to the popularity of libraries such as jQuery. These libraries greatly reduce the amount of time and frustration that would otherwise be required to create these powerful enhancements, because the libraries implement many features that native JavaScript alone does not support.

Php.js further enhances JavaScript's capabilities by making many of PHP's most popular functions accessible from within JavaScript, including date() and wordwrap(). Not intended to be a port of PHP to JavaScript, php.js instead seeks to enhance JavaScript where the language is weak and not interfere otherwise.

With success comes imitation, and we've seen a number of Stack Overflow clones implemented in a variety of languages during the past two years. One of the most interesting PHP-specific implementations is Anant Garg's Qwench, a self-proclaimed "PHP StackOverflow Clone."

Although apparently functional (see this demo), it doesn't appear as if Anant has worked on Qwench in recent months. However, because it's hosted on GitHub maybe another contributor will help kickstart the project anew!

8. Phergie

Whether you're an open source user or contributor, chances are you've spent a fair amount of time chatting with others over IRC. Because of IRC's popularity, developers have written a number of "bots" capable of programmatically responding to IRC-initiated events. For instance, bots have been created as AI experiments, gaming partners and chat room facilitators.

If you're looking for a PHP-driven IRC bot, check out Phergie, a recently launched project that has been under rapid development for the past several months and has recently become part of Luke Fitzgerald's Google Summer of Code project. Check out Phergie's GitHub repository to download the code and monitor progress.

9. Vim-debug

As we all know, vi won the Editor Wars years ago. If you're a member of this victorious party, check out vim-debug, an integrated debugging environment that integrates with xdebug to create an even more powerful PHP development environment than has already long been offered by vim (see Andrei Zmievski's great presentation VIM for PHP Programmers if you'd like to learn more about what's possible).

10. PHPInteractiveShell

I've long envied the Interactive Ruby Shell, which provides a great way to quickly experiment with Ruby code. It appears as if Geoffrey Bachelet has taken a giant step towards implementing a similar solution for PHP developers thanks to his release of PHPInteractiveShell. Although it appears as if development has slowed in recent months, hopefully other users will pick up the ball and run with what looks like a great start on a promising new project!

Conclusion

PHP users have historically been a rather independent bunch, and these ten wild projects indicate that over the years that mindset hasn't disappeared. Are you working on a wild PHP project, or know of one not mentioned here? Tell us about it in the comments!